I recently taught a workshop in Sheridan Wy, which is a small town nestled against the Big Horn Mountains. Here the class is spreading out to paint on Goose Creek Road. One of the problems is trying to pick a view; there is so much to paint there.Sheridan is full of history, ranches and beautiful landscape. The Big Horns aren’t as dramatic as the Rockies to the west but they have a subtle beauty to them that I find more interesting. The mountains are more rounded and have rocky outcroppings that pull your eyes over the shapes.
There are also layers of valleys and streams with huge cottonwoods and winding

dirt roads. One of the problems is getting permission to travel and paint on private land but everyone was very accommodating and happy to have us there. A lot of the mountain roads were pretty rough. I made a mistake of driving to Sheridan in a car to save gas money and ended up blowing out a couple of tires.

The students were well prepared, they had no problem with the roads, heat and bugs, no one wimped out half way through the day.

There was some complaining about the amount of green we had to paint but that’s plein air painting in June. It makes you appreciate winter colors. I do hope to return and do some more painting and teaching there, maybe in the fall and winter. It’s a very friendly, paintable place.

This 10x10 demo was near Goose Creek Road, the spring flowers were in abundance and helped cut some of the green. I wanted to demonstrate that you can focus on the values and temperature and push the color any direction you want.

This photo is a good example of the cloud shadows that floated by every day. They helped break up the mountains and introduce different colors.